Transport and Highways Current Affairs

Maharashtra Government has announced construction of 800 kms long Nagpur-Mumbai expressway. This expressway will be called as Communication Super-expressway or Nagpur-Amravati-Aurangabad-Ghoti-Mumbai expressway.

It is considered a major move in the surface transportation in Maharashtra as it connects both major cities of state each located on east and west end.

This project would be completed in coming five years at the cost of 30,000 crore rupees. This expressway will reduce the travel time between the state capital and second capital from present 14 hours to 10 hours.

This super-expressway will be a 6-lane road and in the 1st phase a four lane road will be constructed. It will be equipped with CCTV cameras,wi-fi facility and optical fibre network. It will also play important role in development of backwards regions of northern Maharashtra, Vidarbha and Marathwada.

Besides this, state government is also planning to develop Information Technology (IT) parks, smart cities and education hubs along the road.

First phase of Chennai Metro service was inaugurated by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa after she flagged off inaugural train.

The first phase of Metro service covers the 10-km overhead (elevated) stretch. It connects Alandur in south Chennai to Koyabedu in the north.

The metro service will bear capacity of 1276 passengers with four coaches. It will cover seven stations in the stretch. They are Koyambedu, Arumbakkam, Vadapalani, Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminus, Ashok Nagar, Ekkattuthangal.

The Corridor 2 or second phase of this metro connecting Chennai Central and St. Thomas Mount is will be ready by end 2015. The whole project is implemented by Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL). It was approved by then Congress-led UPA government in 2009.

With launching of this Metro service, Chennai became seventh city in India to have metro service. Other 6 cities are Delhi, Mumbai, Gurgaon, Bangalore, Kolkata and Jaipur.